Studies carried out within a cognitive-functional perspective of linguistic analysisdistinguish a relation between the structural properties of complements of causationverbs and the kind of causation they designate. The present paper follows this lineof investigation. However, the focus of the analysis is put on the relation between thesubjunctive mood and the concepts of subjectification and dominion in causativestructures. The hypothesis put forward is that the relation between the Portuguesecausation verbs fazer and deixar, on the one hand, and the subjunctive complement, onthe other, can be can be explained in terms of subjectification, i.e. a diminished degreeof subject control. Accordingly, it is argued that the subjunctive mood designates anevent that is located outside the conceptualizer’s dominion.